TSN analyst O'Neill criticizes Winnipeg

Jacob Trouba celebrates his goal with teammates during the second period against Buffalo on Tuesday night. The Jets need to sign budding stars like Trouba and Mark Scheifele to long-term contracts before they realize nobody wants to play in Winnipeg, suggests TSN analyst Jeff O'Neill. (Bruce Fedyck/USA TODAY Sports)

“Nobody wants to stay there, nobody wants to sign there,” O’Neill stated between periods of the Jets’ victory over the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday.

Either O’Neill hasn’t paid much attention to what’s happened in Winnipeg or he sees the team’s core as a bunch of nobodies.

Andrew Ladd, Dustin Byfuglien, Ondrej Pavelec, Evander Kane, Tobias Enstrom, Blake Wheeler, and Zach Bogosian have all inked deals with the Jets to keep them in Winnipeg for years to come.

Sure, it’s easy to pick on Winnipeg when we’ve just endured the second-coldest December in 100 years. But eventually you start to wonder when in the name of Ilya Bryzgalov we’ll ever lose the tag of the NHL city where nobody wants to play.

Ladd signed a five-year extension with Winnipeg shortly after the team moved here in 2011, passing up the opportunity to sign a one-year contract and test unrestricted free agency the following summer.

“Unrestricted free agency’s a big thing for a player,” he told The Hockey News at the time. “Looking at the big picture, I was in a great situation with the organization in terms of my role with the team. It never really crossed my mind to go that route.”

We’ll see if rival NHL teams are going to be willing to open the vault and pay even more dearly in terms of players and draft picks to lure Trouba and Scheifele away when their entry-level contracts are up, as O’Neill suggests.

But if I’m either of those guys, why would I be in a rush to leave? These are hockey players, not professional golfers.

Remember the reaction from some of the former Atlanta Thrashers when they arrived in Winnipeg? They were stunned at how often people recognized them around the city.

I’m betting Jim Slater could have worn his Thrashers jersey while grocery shopping in Atlanta and nobody would have given him a second look.

These guys have been given an opportunity to play in an arena that some say is the loudest in the NHL. Quite a change from playing in what must have seemed like a library setting in Atlanta.

Ilya Kovalchuk didn’t want out of Atlanta because he couldn’t stand the heat. He wanted to be with a playoff contender.

If weather is such a significant factor in attracting players, then the Florida Panthers should be a perennial powerhouse.

A playoff run would go a long way to ending this issue and that likely won’t happen this season. But from where I’m sitting, the Jets are making better strides toward that than the Calgary Flames or Edmonton Oilers.

Then there’s our neighbours to the south in Minnesota, who spent $98 million on two free agent signings last summer. As of Thursday, the Wild were two points ahead of the Jets.

Perhaps my friend Bob Holliday summed it up best with his Facebook post on New Year’s Eve, responding to United Airlines decision to cancel flights to and from Winnipeg due to the cold.

“The airline claimed its planes could not take the cold,” Holliday wrote. “Give me a break. Delta, Air Canada and WestJet are still flying ... meanwhile the Buffalo Sabres at Winnipeg Jets NHL game will be played before a sellout at MTS Centre of 15,004.

“Nobody wants to stay there, nobody wants to sign there,” Jeff O’Neill stated between periods of the Jets’ victory over the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday.

Either O’Neill hasn’t paid much attention to what’s happened in Winnipeg or he sees the team’s core as a bunch of nobodies.

Andrew Ladd, Dustin Byfuglien, Ondrej Pavelec, Evander Kane, Tobias Enstrom, Blake Wheeler, and Zach Bogosian have all inked deals with the Jets to keep them in Winnipeg for years to come.

Sure, it’s easy to pick on Winnipeg when we’ve just endured the second-coldest December in 100 years. But eventually you start to wonder when in the name of Ilya Bryzgalov we’ll ever lose the tag of the NHL city where nobody wants to play.